Improvement in making seamless metal tubes



'J'. L SPEED, JR. & J. A. BAILEY. MACHINE FOR MAKING PIPES 0R TUBING.

PATENTED JULY 15, 1856.

IELIIIJIIVIIFF UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

oHN-J. SPEED, JR, AND JOHN A. BAILEY, 0F DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING SEAMLESS METAL-TUBES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 15,348, dated July 15,1856.

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that we, JOHN J. SPEED, Jr., and J only A. BAILEY, ofDetroit, in the county of Wayne and State of Michigan, have invented anew and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Seamless Metal Pipes orTubing; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear,and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexeddrawings; making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is alongitudinal vertical section of our improvement, so 00, Fig. 2, showingthe plane of section. Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section of thesame, 3 y, Fig. 1, showing the plane of section. Fig. 3 is a detachedfront view of the vibrating dies. 7

Similar letters of reference indicate correspondiug parts in the severalfigures.

Our improvement has no reference to what is termed lap-welded tubing,but relates exclusively to the manufacture of that description of metaltubing in which there .is no seam or lap, but the tube is elongated orthinned out lengthwise, as it were, from a close, thick, andcomparatively short tubular casting of metal having no seam or split init.

To enable those skilled in the art. to fully understand and constructour invention, we will proceed to describe it. w

A represents a bed-plate, to which an upright bar or plate B is attachedor secured in any proper manner.

0 represents a shaft, the bearings of which are placed in horizontalarms a, attached. to the bar or plate B. On one end of the shaft 0 afly-wheel D is placed, and on the center of the shaft between the arms athere is placed acrank b. Thereis also a spur-wheel E on the shaft 0,and the wheel E gears into a pinion F, the axis of which is secured toone of the arms a. I

To the crank Z) one end of a pitman G is attached. The opposite end ofthe pitman has a cylindrical cross-arm 0 connected to it, which arm isfitted between two plates (1 e, which are placed in a slot f in the baror plate B. The upper end of the upper plate d is rounded or made ofsemi-cylindrical form and fits or bears in a corresponding shaped recessor cavity in the upper part of the bar or plate B. The lower end of thelower plate 6 is concave and fits over the rounded or semi-cylindricaltop of a die H, whichis placed in the bar or plate B, and is securedtherein by a plate I, which is secured in arecess in the bar or plate Bby a cross-bar g, as

shown .in Figs. 1 and 2. \Vithi-n the bar or plate 13 there are alsoplaced two dies J K.

These dies, are placed in oblique or inclined I positions, as clearlyshown in Fig. 1, and each die J K has a spring 71. attached to its underThe face edges of the three dies are casting is fed.

L represents a screw-rod one end of which has its bearing in an uprightM on the bedplate A. The other end is made perfectly smooth, and formsthe mandrel L, on which the tubular casting is drawn out by the dies, aswill be presently explained.

On the screw -rod L a nut- N is placed, said nut having a ratchet 2' atone end, and a circular plate 0 is placed on the screw-rod, said platehaving'a pawl j attached to it, which pawl catches into the ratchet 2'.To the upper and lower ends of the plate 0 there are pivoted arms k is,which are connected to the upper and lower ends of a cross-bar P, whichis fitted loosely on a rock-shaft Q, said shaft receiving its motion bymeans of a connecting rod Z, the upper end of which is attached to thepinion F and the lower end to an arm m on the shaft Q. I

The dies J K are secured in the bar or plate B by the plate I.

The short thick tubular casting or ingot R, out of which the tube ismade, is placed on the mandrel L, one end of it being connected to thecircular plate 0, and motion being given the shaft 0 a vibratingmovement radially to the mandrel is communicated to the dies H J K, thetwo plates d e forming atoggle, and the upper die H, when radiatinginward, forcing down the two lower and lateral dies J K till the latterarrive at-a solid bearing or seat, andv when the circle formed by thecombined curvatures of the inner faces of the three dies is complete andclose or un broken the two lower dies J K, by their relative position tothe upper die H, effectually restraining the compressed ingot orpartiallyformed tube from giving out laterally one way or the otherunder the action of the upper die, and thus effecting an equal reductionor uniform thinning of the tubing (so im= portant in metal pipes) allround at every point on its surface, as the three dies, when closed,encircle the tubing throughout its circumference, and, as we haveprovedin' practice, two semispherical dies, an upper and a lower one, byunavoidably giving out laterally as the machine wears, will not producethe same perfect or uniform tubing. while three dies otherwise operatingtouching the circle of the tube at but three points and slidinglengthwise over it, while the tube (necessarily supported on a mandrelthe length of the tube) continuously rotates; or the tube iscontinuously fed lengthwise and the dies rotated, (as in the machinepatented to J; Pratt on the 6th June, 1854,) will not efiect the sameperfect result, as the compressive operation or action of the dies ordie-rollers in Pratts machine under either method of operation is aspiral one, elongating any fiaw there may be in the surface of the metalforming the tube, and this is a defect incidental to all drawing,arrangements, while Pratt cannot employ other than dies touching merelyat their points, as to operate a circle of dies such as ours in hismanner would twist and rend the metal, and dies touching merely at theirpoints cause the metal to pucker up between the dies; but ourarrangement, it will be observed, is a radial-compressive action whenthe tube is at rest and taking-in every point in the circle orcircumference of the tube, the screwfeed of the ingot B being, like thecompressive action of the dies, intermittent and made automaticallyalternate with said action of the dies by means of the nut N, plate Q,pawl 7',-ratchet-arms 7c, cross-bar R, and rockshaft Q, operatingtogether, as will be well understood by reference to equivalent feeds,

to effect this action; but it is important that this automaticintermittent feed should be nicely timed, both as regards period andextent, with or to the action of the dies, so that not only the entirecircumference of the tube may be acted on by the three dies, but everypoint throughout the length of the tube be compressed in aradialdirection, and without which a'perfect tube cannot be formed.

The spreading out of the tube by compression on every point of itscircumference over a short mandrel-surface L is preferable to theemployment of a long Varied mandrelsurface, both as regards forming aperfect exterior and interior to the tube, as a short mandrel-surfacemay be made and kept truer than a long one and varied spring of themandrel is avoided, and thus our arrangement and operation of the threedies on the ingot on the mandrel, in connection With the specifiedautomatic intermittent feed, makes a seamless pipe or tubing of the mostperfect exterior and interior rotundity and of the smoothest finish;.also makes it more compact and firm than under any previous arrangementfor the manufacture of tubes of this sort, the metal in them being madedenser, and the dies hammering radially on the tube over the entirecircumference and at every point throughout the length any hole orblemish in the metal will be closed up instead of being drawn out, as byPratts and othermethods.

We are convinced from experiment that a different arrangement andoperation of the dies on the ingot solidly all round the interiormandrel of the entire configuration of the bore will not effect the sameperfect exterior and interior to the tube, both of which are equallyimportant, the two lower side dies J K not only efiectually preventingunequal lateral disturbance by the downward thrust of the upper one, butthe three dies, taking in the Whole circle, doing'away with theformation of longitudinal seams or ridges at the junction of the dies,as occurs with an arrangement of two encircling dies only, and

which have a tendency to produce an oval formation of the tube.

We do not claim in itself as new an automatic intermittent feed of thework, nor do stationary condition of the latter and a diag-' onalarrangement of the hammering-dies to it, as such has been used inthimble-making machines; but i We do claim as an improvement in themanufacture of seamless metal pipes or tubing and desire to secure byLetters Patent The three encircling and radially-hammering or pressuredies H J K when arranged relatively to, each other and operating to-'getheron the tubular ingot while stationary,

as specified, and, in combination with the intermittent feed to theingot or partiallyformed tube on or over the mandrel, alternal c withthe compressive action of the dies, as shown and described.-

JOHN J. SPEED, JR. JOHN A. BAILEY. Witnesses:

WM. TUSCH, Y J AMES F. BUoKLEY.

